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Wednesday, 27 February 2013

More from the fabulous Perry brothers' Sudan range, this time the Heliograph Section. As you would expect from the Perrys they were great sculpts to work on, but the Heliograph Section caused me a bit of a dilemma in so much as some of the miniatures just seemed too versatile to commit to one base and so a little terrain build ensued. The idea was to give them their own piece of high ground from wish to signal away, while allowing me the freedom to use one of the officers and the guard for other duties as and when the need arose.

The build itself was relatively straightforward with an old CD forming the base, a pre-cut 'Warbases' MDF circle, some discarded blue foam and a couple of pieces of wood chipping looted from a child's play area! The use of wood chips as a wonderful material for rocky outcrops has been tried before on the 'Tough Terrain' build and is originally inspired by the tremendous work on show at the outstanding 'Maiwand Day' blog - well worth a look.

In need of inspiration for the painting of the miniatures themselves I immediately headed over to Mark Hargreaves' tremendous 'Over Open Sights' blog. He has a fabulously painted version on display that I shamelessly cribbed from, although I bottled painting the insignia on the sleeves of the men - seriously impressive Mark!

This was a very rewarding build and I have to confess that I was pleased with the results, but it will mark the end of my travels in the Sudan for a while, I feel something frivolous coming on!

Monday, 25 February 2013

Everywhere you look there is always something new and shiny to catch your eye and distract one from going about their normal projects and it would appear that I am as susceptible as the next man. Whilst the rest of the world is jumping on board the new 'Empire of the Dead' Kickstarter it would appear that yours truly, in his inevitable style is backing the 'also ran'!

Osprey Publishing's new steam punk rules, 'In Her Majesty's Name' are due for release on the 18th April along with the accompanying miniatures that just seemed to resonate to me and carry many of the attributes that I was playing around with in the characters destined for the 'Secret Project'; to that end I've gone and pledged far too much of my pocket money on them!

So why do I mention it here? Well although not a Kickstarter in its own right, the idea is a very simple one - pay up front and if certain goals are reached then new and exclusive miniatures will be sent to you - for free! It would appear that the minimum pledge of £37 would entitle you to all the forthcoming spend goals, so the more of you that join in, then the more lead I'll have to sneak past the Saintly Mrs. Awdry on my return from Salute!

To get a more in depth breakdown as to what 'In Her Majesty's Name' is all about then click here; go on you know you want to!

What I've loved about the Painting Challenge is that it has got me painting bits and pieces that have been sitting around for an age; these were in fact part of two sets that I picked up at 'Salute 2011' for goodness sake! I managed to get the one of the sets started back in May 2011, but was only brought to a conclusion in July last year as can be seen here; so to finally get the second set off the painting table is a bit of a relief!

I have to confess that I was really leased with the way the camels came out and even more so when I saw them in conjunction with the earlier set - the makings of a proper force, no less. Now we just have to wait for the 'Saintly Mrs. Awdry' to name them!

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Goodness me, where does the time go? Blessed with a small 'mini-break' from work, I find my beloved '28mm Victorian Warfare' in desperate need of a Spring clean; or at least a post or two! It has occurred to me that I had not made mention of a game I recently attended; finally I hear you all cry! Not so very long ago, I had been following a series of posts by the 'The Dark Templar' charting his progress and pitched battles with his good friend, Bull (of 'Bull's Waaagghhh!' fame) in the murky backwaters of a galaxy known as Warhammer 40K. Apart from the usual incredibly high standard of modelling and painting Master Templar was also engaging in a bout or two of trash talking, with a certain amount of justification given the ferociousness of his recently revamped Plague Marines.

Looks great, but not powerful enough to penetrate the armour!

Having left a comment or two on the relevant posts you can imagine my surprise when I received an email inviting me to the next game! There was no pressure to bring any models or learn the rues just turn up and roll some dice. Now having said that I hoped to play some games this year the invitation was just too good an opportunity to miss out on, not least because it would be a wonderful opportunity to catch up with Mike who I had last met at the conclusion of the 'Tale of the Three Painters'.

Wow! The Templar's big boys rip into the Dark Angels.

And so it was that I found myself on 'Bull's' threshold, armed with camera and chocolate digestives ready to do battle. Now I won't commit to a full 'Batrep' as these can be found here (The Dark Templar's) and here (Bull's), but I will share some of my own thoughts and observations as appropriate. On arrival the board was already set up with the terrain awaiting the positioning of models, this would prove problematic for the The Dark Templar as it transpired that he had inadvertently left his miniatures at home - how could this be possible? How could you turn up to a prearranged game without your models? Now there was a perfectly good reason for this but let us just say that The Dark Templar was already on the back foot and the recipient of one or two salvos of playful banter. All was not lost as substitutes were press-ganged into service from 'Bull's' huge collection and he had managed to remember his Nurgle Heldrake and Forgefiend - two splendidly converted and painted demonic monstrosities.

Apparently these were zombies!

Once the game was underway I have to confess that there were times when the combatants may as well have been talking in gibberish; a sci-fi fan at heart I could keep up with 'Laz-cans', 'Pulse-cans' and 'Flamers', but when it came to the more specific game dynamics, I was lost. I was amazed just how much reference material was at hand, partly because the codex been used were new to both, but also the amount of intricacies they contained. It was clear that these were two seasoned gamers, veterans of many a campaign and yet there was still so much to learn - what hope was there for me? Perhaps sensing my apprehension at been on the periphery of this pitched battle the 'Dark Templar' handed me a set a dice with the clear instruction, "anything higher than a 3". As the 'cubes of chaos' came to a standstill, many with 6s face up, I was hooked!

The relic is captured!

As the game progressed, I was able to get a better handle of the systems that made up a turn and started to appreciate the strategies that were been employed in front of me. I remember been horrified though at just how much physical punishment the models were taking. They were picked up and repositioned with gay abandon, occasionally knocked and all the time I thinking, "oh no, is he all right?", "please don't let his paint be chipped!" I think it was at this point that I started to understand just how far I had to go to become a gamer!

Challenge accepted; the shy Typhus's played by an Ogre!

The game came to a natural conclusion, a win for the Templar's Chaos forces, but what a splendid afternoon's entertainment it had been. I can't thank the chaps enough for their very kind offer and of course, Mrs. Bull for the splendid hospitality - wonderful bacon sandwiches and lashings of tea and coffee. Now whilst I appreciate that I have a while to go before hosting a simialr battle it has confirmed my desire to persist with this most wholesome of hobbies, but is it wrong that I want to go out and buy some Warhammer 40K models?

Monday, 11 February 2013

My apologies to one and all, but we seem to experiencing a rather determined patch of 'real worldness'! Rest assured we have our best technicians on the case and we hope to have the hamster back in his wheel and the ship righted before too long.